


fall. (over and out)

by presumenothing (justjoy)



Series: fma fics [7]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: (note the archive warning y'all), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26445583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justjoy/pseuds/presumenothing
Summary: Hawkeye’s voice cuts clear through the echo of Fullmetal’s refusal, through the ash lingering in the tunnels and the roar in Roy’s ears. “Edward. Get out of here, take Envy with you.”“Wh– like hell I’mleaving!Lieutenant, don’t tell me you’re–”Of course Fullmetal argues – they’ve always let him, but today Hawkeye overrides the words, dismisses him altogether and shifts her attention to the man beside him. “Scar.”It is acknowledgement and intention and request all in one, and Fullmetal doesn’t comprehend quickly enough to dodge.(Riza chooses differently, on the Promised Day.)
Relationships: Riza Hawkeye & Roy Mustang
Series: fma fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882300
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49





	fall. (over and out)

**Author's Note:**

> this diverges from the final confrontation with envy, right after ed and scar arrive. 
> 
> also, last chance to _note the archive warning_

“I’ll ask you one more time. _Hand it over,_ Fullmetal.”

* * *

Hawkeye’s voice cuts clear through the echo of Fullmetal’s refusal, through the ash lingering in the tunnels and the roar in Roy’s ears. “Edward. Get out of here, take Envy with you.”

“Wh– like hell I’m _leaving!_ Lieutenant, don’t tell me you’re–”

Of course Fullmetal argues – they’ve always let him, but today Hawkeye overrides the words, dismisses him altogether and shifts her attention to the man beside him. “Scar.”

It is acknowledgement and intention and request all in one, and Fullmetal doesn’t comprehend quickly enough to dodge. Scar turns his nod into a blur of motion; snatches Envy in his right hand and grabs Fullmetal with the other, and what have they gotten to, that this man (once victim then enemy again, the shape of all Roy’s mistakes) is a more reliable ally than his subordinate.

Alchemy crackles, splatters. Roy hopes – if the word can be applied to such a vicious and savage thing – that it had _hurt_ , that Scar has taken the revenge for Ishval that Roy had been denied for Hughes, but otherwise Envy’s death goes unremarked.

Or maybe it only seems so because Roy cannot parse Fullmetal’s shouting right now, beyond noting distantly that it’s furious instead of terrified as he should be. That’s always been Fullmetal’s problem, after all; being incapable of recognising the position he’s in, even when he’s caught between three killers who have long since stopped flinching.

Hawkeye’s right. Fullmetal should go.

It won’t stop him from finding out what happened later, none of them have any illusions about that, but Ed doesn’t need to see this. They can spare him that much.

Perhaps Scar thinks the same, because he turns away and stops, unheeding of Fullmetal thrashing and yelling under one arm. “I do not do this because you asked me to, Amestrian.”

“I know,” Hawkeye says.

“Whatever your choice after this, it will not do anything to make up for what you did to my people.”

“I know,” she says again. “Thank you.”

Scar answers nothing to that, only starts walking without looking back, and still the barrel pressed to Roy’s head does not waver even once.

Around them the tunnels feel yet more silent than before; when Roy speaks he barely recognises the sound of his own voice. “I thought you disagreed with treating Fullmetal like a child.”

“He still believes that people can change.” _Even after everything he’s seen,_ she doesn’t need to add _._

Roy stares unseeing at the darkness. “And you, Lieutenant? Do you think the same?”

“Should I?”

The exhaustion is tangible in every word. None of them are good people, and perhaps that’d been a lost cause all along, but Riza Hawkeye is the best person he’s ever known and he’s _sorry_ that he’s done this to her.

Roy gives the only answer he can find. “I think we’re well past that point.”

In any other circumstance the breath of her exhale would’ve been a quiet sigh, because she _understands,_ as she always has. Change can be a making or unmaking or both, and the fact that they have ended up here is answer enough in itself.

He’d wanted to change this country; he’d ended up being changed instead. Equivalent exchange at its most ironic.

Roy’s gaze drops down to the array stitched on the back of his gloves, and he doesn’t even remember when he had lowered his hand, only registered the steady weight of Hawkeye’s raised one behind him. “Why did you let him do it?”

“Because Scar is not my responsibility,” she answers simply. “Turn around, Colonel.”

A small eternity later he unfreezes enough to speak again. “I believe I did say you have the right to shoot me from the back, Lieutenant.”

“And if you’d asked me then I still would’ve told you that I won’t do it from the back. Or did you think I’d made a habit of not looking at the people I kill?” The unyielding metal finally relents from its position – either she’d lowered the gun or stepped back. “Turn around, Roy.”

He briefly considers taking off his gloves, and discards the idea just as swiftly; it’s worse than meaningless now, between them, because the flame alchemy is only one of the many lines he’d crossed.

Roy turns around, and Riza has lowered the gun to point at his heart instead.

Fitting, all considered.

He meets her eyes, and the words come out almost rehearsed, like he’s prepared for this before; perhaps on some level he has. “My office, behind the third bookcase. There’s a lockbox, the combination is six digits – the date Bradley issued Order 3066. The draft plans for Ishval’s reconstruction, potential sympathetic contacts including the press. Letters to the team. My will, witnessed by Armstrong and Brosh. Paperwork for Fullmetal’s honourable discharge and to seal his military record.”

Riza nods. The cut at her neck has stopped bleeding, at least. “I’ll make sure those get to the correct people.”

His hands feel heavy at his sides. “There’s a letter for you, too.”

“I know,” she answers, softly, nothing like how she’d sounded earlier.

The next part don’t come quite as easily. “Don’t… don’t let them give me a war hero’s funeral.”

Even imagining it makes him sick. Hughes had deserved the ceremony – he’d been trying to warn them and lost his life for it.

What has _Roy_ done, in the shadow of that?

They can bury his body wherever they like. Let the hero of Ishval die here; let him pass on unremarked. That’s all he can ask for.

“It’s written in my will, too,” he hears himself adding with eerie calm, like this is all just a routine discussion. Just another day in the office.

He wonders if it sounds the same to her too. “I’ll see that it’s carried out. What else?”

“Just one more thing.” Maybe Hughes is watching all this from the other side and laughing, or more likely he’d moved on by now, but that doesn’t change the last thing Roy wants to – _needs_ to say. “I gave you orders not to die, before all this.”

Riza’s expression shifts, just enough to show that he’s right. “ _Colonel_.”

There is nothing pleading in her voice; Roy steels himself against it anyway. He has no right to ask this of her, but he had no right making her do this either and yet he had still asked. “Will you keep to it?”

The silence hangs stricken between them.

“Not for this. Burn the letters – burn my will for all I care.” Each word feels like barbed wire dragged out of his throat, and it’s almost a relief when his voice finally breaks. “I need you to _live_ , Riza. I can’t lose you.”

Even if the world ends. Even if he’s dead.

Even after he makes her lose him.

Riza’s answer is harsh, scraped raw. “You can’t ask that of me.”

“I know.” Roy wants to lower his head if only for a moment, to close his eyes and try to see where it had all gone wrong, but she deserves better than defeat and he won’t turn away from this. “Thank you, Lieutenant Hawkeye. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Riza says, and he keeps his eyes locked on hers instead of the raise of her gun. “Goodbye, Colonel Mustang.”

Roy smiles just before the world goes black. Perhaps Maes _will_ be waiting on the other side, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> anon asked about riza actually shooting roy in the tunnels, and i knew immediately that i wanted to write it and also that it'd be hard as hell without straying from these characters as i understand them.
> 
> so here it is, five days later. also it's past 1am and i desperately need to sleep, but in the meantime let me know what you think


End file.
